


We're Older But No Wiser

by blueswan



Category: Being Human (UK)
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-19
Updated: 2012-11-19
Packaged: 2017-11-19 02:10:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/567864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueswan/pseuds/blueswan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Spoilers up to and including 4.02<br/>Words: 575<br/>Notes: For gingerpig with thanks.<br/>Originally published Feb. 16, 2012</p>
<p>Lyrics from Those Were the Days":<br/>Through the door there came familiar laughter<br/>I saw your face and heard you call my name<br/>Oh, my friend, we're older but no wiser<br/>For in our hearts the dreams are still the same...</p>
    </blockquote>





	We're Older But No Wiser

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers up to and including 4.02  
> Words: 575  
> Notes: For gingerpig with thanks.  
> Originally published Feb. 16, 2012
> 
> Lyrics from Those Were the Days":  
> Through the door there came familiar laughter  
> I saw your face and heard you call my name  
> Oh, my friend, we're older but no wiser  
> For in our hearts the dreams are still the same...

We're Older But No Wiser

He watches them passing the baby back and forth like she is the most precious thing in the world, like she is theirs, like she is George and Nina's little one. Annie laughs and mouths a flailing hand. She catches Tom's arm with one hand and slides the baby into his already crooked elbow as the kettle begins to boil. Tom cups his free hand to the side of the baby's face and brushes a calloused finger against her check. His face loses its usual mulish look and softens until he looks a mere boy himself.

Hal gets up and takes his mug outside to sip his tea and squint at the brightness of the day. He stopped trying to see if it would make him sizzle decades ago. It just hurts, and hurts more, the longer he tries to out stubborn it. The only thing that hurts worse is the pain of losing Leo and Pearl. Hal sometimes (every other minute) thinks if he could just scratch his heart with a silver knife or wooden stake that might end the endless ache. He's pretty sure he could provoke the boy into killing him without much effort, but even that little effort feels like too much work.

A car drives by slowly and Hal tracks it. He sees a burst window, feels head and hands and neck under his own hands, smells blood metallic and heated sliding down his tongue, coating it down deep and his fangs drop. Automaton-like he raises his wrist, bites and wrenches and savages his flesh. A long ago Leo lesson. Hal welcomed that one, but hasn't needed in years.

Hal swings around to open the door and flee back inside. There's no blues music, there's no Pearl, girl-voice high and light warbling along, there's no low rumble of Leo laughing as she misses note after note. Behind him a man yells something from the sidewalk to a child running ahead and Hal bangs the heel of his hand on the door over and over, drops of blood raining from his wrist.

When the door is pulled open, Hal watched Tom's pupils widen, his mouth open and his tongue rise and fall as he shouts a warming to Annie. A stake is hauled from a deep pocket and Hal knows this is his answer. It's always been his answer.

"Do it, mate. Go on then, do it." Hal says.

Annie pops back into sight. There are no tears. Her face is tight with anger, her voice shakes with it. "There will be no more of that in this house." Now she breaks and the tears roll down her face, but her voice becomes firm. "Not again, Tom. God, not again."

Tom doesn't know happened exactly, but he knows Mitchell died in this house at the hands of his friends with Annie's blessing. He thinks still "good riddance" but nothing will make him hurt Annie any further. He shakes Hal and drops him.

Hal lays on the floor and feels the vibrations of Tom's feet as he runs up the stairs to the nursery.

"It hurts so bad. I feel so awful." Its pathetic and true. He, Hal, has turned into a sniveling whiner.

"When does it stop?" It's official. Hal can never hold his head up among the other vampires he doesn't know and doesn't want to know.

"I don't know." There's a pause and then, "I'll make us some tea."


End file.
